"We need them to act now because there's no time to lose," said Phyllis Nichols, president and CEO of the Knoxville Area Urban League.

Black Civil Rights leaders on Wednesday called on Congress to pass the DREAM Act without amendment, saying that Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will be a “grave injustice” that will adversely affect more than 8,000 Tennesseans.

Tennessee State Conference NAACP president Gloria Sweet-Love made the push for the Dream Act during a press call with other civil rights leaders. Speakers urged Republican Tennessee senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander to immediately vote for a clean version of the DREAM act.

“We must not allow [the] Trump administration to renege on a government promise for our country,” Sweet-Love said. “We support passing a clean DREAM act in 2017 without amendment.”

Knoxville Area Urban League president and CEO Phyllis Nichols echoed Sweet-Love’s sentiments. “‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,’” Nichols said, quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “The Urban League will stand with our dreamers.”